


bharatasutra

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Mahabharata fics [18]
Category: Mahabharata - Vyasa
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:42:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22415689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Various Mahabharata ficlets originally posted on Tumblr.Title means "short sketch of the Mahabharata" in Sanskrit.
Relationships: Dushala & Draupadi, Satyabhama & Rukmini, Uttara (Mahabharata) & Shweta (Mahabharata), Uttara (Mahabharata) & Uttar (Mahabharata)
Series: Mahabharata fics [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1108677
Comments: 22
Kudos: 24





	1. Satyabhama & Rukmini, spying

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi/gifts), [avani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/gifts), [GlyphArchive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlyphArchive/gifts), [Medhasree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medhasree/gifts), [AmbidextrousArcher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbidextrousArcher/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For anonymous on Tumblr, who asked “Satyabhama and Rukmini for the prompt: spying?” for the three sentence fic meme.

All the world knows of the wildly indecorous love letter Rukmini sent to Lord Krishna begging him to take her away; Satyabhama had long known the story, and even thought it wickedly romantic. It is only when she herself marries Krishna and joins his inner circle that she learns about the years of letters that the princess of Vidarbha and the cowherd of Mathura wrote to each other, that Rukmini was a spy for the Yadavas and instrumental in bringing down Jarasandha. She does not know why it discomforts her so, to think of their love as the culmination of years’ worth of correspondence and trust, rather than a dashing exploit of true love.


	2. Krishna, cloud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @hermioneaubreymiachase who asked “For the three sentence ficathon : Mahabharat, Krishn, with the prompt 'cloud'. Thanks :)”. The Hindi means “Yashoda’s crazy son”.

Murky-gray clouds eating up the sky over Vrindavan never stop Krishna from tormenting the gopis or stealing butter. If anything, the cool showers and the scent of damp earth only make his usual exploits even more tempting. Long after he leaves Vrindavan to free Mathura from Kamsa’s thrall and build Dwaraka from the ground up, the clouds in the sky are never quite as endearing as when he was nothing more than  _ Yashoda ki beta pagla. _


	3. Gandhari & Any, I will follow you into the dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @avani008, who asked “Mahabharata, Gandhari & Any, I will follow you into the dark” for three sentence fic meme.

Padmanabha favors her company, unlike Duryodhan who prefers Shakuni’s (and Karna’s), and Dushasan who prefers Duryodhan’s. She is more than a little thrilled to have one son entirely her own, whose footsteps mirror hers, except for one afternoon when he asks if he may don a blindfold as well so that he might be as wise as her.

“I do not wear it for wisdom,” she says, uncommonly shrill, a strange terror cresting in her, and Padmanabha never asks again.


	4. Uttara, dancing bells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @avani008 who prompted “Mahabharata, Uttara, dancing bells” for three sentence fic.

Uttara adorns the  _ rakhis  _ she makes for Shweta and Uttar with bells so that whenever they hear music, they are reminded of their duty to their sister. Mother says that  _ rakhis  _ should not resemble her  _ ghungroos  _ and Father says fondly that someday she must outgrow such childish notions and Uncle Kichak booms that she’s a fool to even think of trusting in Uttar, but Shweta and Uttar only wear them with the greatest of reverence.

(They wear them to Kurukshetra.)


	5. Madri, fire and ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @avani008, who prompted “Mahabharata, Madri, fire and ice” for three sentence fic.

In her girlhood, Madri was convinced that justice could be divided into black and white, a stark line between fire and ice. Life’s vagaries quickly cure her of that notion, but she finds herself all the happier for it, even if it means she is more content in the forest than she ever was in palaces.

(Of course in the end, justice is as icy as a curse made true, and as hot as a funeral pyre.)


	6. Sudeshna & Any, a bitter pill to swallow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @avani008, who requested “Mahabharata, Sudeshna & Any, a bitter pill to swallow” for the three sentence fic meme.

Sudeshna is one of those who throws herself at Krishna’s feet when Pariksit is stillborn, but her motives are simpler and more selfish than most others’.

“How dare, how _dare,_ ” she spits when he credits her with helping to save the last Kuru heir, “you think I did it for your accursed dynasty? You have taken enough from me. No, my thoughts were entirely on saving the only heir left to me – and to my daughter.”

Krishna smiles in that mysterious, mocking way of his, and Sudeshna considers following in Queen Gandhari’s footsteps.


	7. Madri & her sons, her final gift to them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @avani008, who requested “Mahabharata, Madri & her sons, her final gift to them” for the three sentence fic meme.

Try as he might, Nakul can never remember what her final words to them were; if Sahadev recalls, with his seeming omniscience, he is selfish (or wise) enough to keep it to himself.

But he always remembers what her first gift to them was, and it is the simple fact that they are two and not one: that Madri was clever enough to call on the Ashwini twins and secure herself two children for the price of one, that he has an eternal companion.

For all that neither Kunti Ma nor her own three ever regard them as lesser, Nakul has been alone since he was not quite five, and he is glad that there is one other person who has the same parents as him.


	8. Dushala & Draupadi, pamphagous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @glyphenthusiast, who asked “Pamphagous: eating everything; all-consuming, character or pairing that's been on your mind lately?”

On days when the thorns of the past do not prick as much, Dushala likes to remember Raudrakarman’s soft-spoken wit, Ugra’s agile fingers, Mahavahu’s innate shyness. Not all of her brothers were scheming kinslayers willing to cast aside all for a power struggle; some of them were content to be minor princes, and the world must remember that as much as it remembers Duryodhana’s poisoned  _ kheer _ and Dushasan’s grasping hands.

Draupadi has only scorn when Dushala tries to share her fonder memories. “Why should I care that some of them might have been more mild than their brothers? Not one of them spoke up when I was thrown to the ground and nearly stripped.”

“Vikarna did,” Dushala says, “and not all of them laughed.”

They are in the gardens, where the seasonal shift from winter to spring has half the plants bestrewn in bursting buds and the other half still a snarl of bare branches. They sit side by side on a bench, Draupadi stiff and unsympathetic, Dushala stiff and unapologetic. 

“And yet he fought for Duryodhana, as did all the rest. They all met their richly deserved ends at Bhima’s hands, every last one.”

“You cannot simply cast them down with the likes of Duryodhana and Dushasan!” Dushala bursts out, even as she is aware of the childishness of the words.

Draupadi merely lifts her chin at this. Panchali is always imperial, even in anger, in a way that Dushala has never been able to master. Her awareness of this leaves Dushala only more flustered.

“I have paid my dues to you. When your husband tried to abduct me, I begged my husbands to spare his life for your sake. He repaid my kindness by murdering my brave stepson in a mockery of war. You will receive nothing else from me.”

The Empress of Indraprastha rises from the bench and takes her leave of the Queen Regent of Sindhu.

Later in Dushala’s private sitting chamber, Charvi says, “You shouldn’t have spoken of such things to her.”

Charvi is taciturn, almost timid, in a way that had Dushala dismissive of her when she first married Suratha, a scorn she is ashamed to recall now. Her daughter-in-law may be reserved, but when she does speak, as she does now, her words hold a quiet steadiness that leaves the listener breathless.

“Surely she could forgive a sister’s grief, having had brothers she loved so much she trusted them more than she did her husbands,” Dushala points out. “Just as she can understand a brother’s loyalty, having been married to five brothers for decades and knowing the depths of the bonds between them.”

She says more softly, almost pleadingly, “You knew your uncles-in-law Raudra and Ugra, didn’t you? How they would always bury themselves in poetry or painting where my eldest brothers preferred to scheme, and how they used to bounce this one on their knee?”

She indicates Yathartha playing on the carpet at their feet, her boy king grandson and the bastion of all her hopes.

“How Suratha would write to them for their thoughts on what artisans to patronize?”

She feels her throat tighten at the thought of those precious letters, now carefully folded and tucked away in one of her bedside drawers.

“Do those parts of them not deserve to be remembered?”

Charvi’s eyes shine overbright, and she turns away, blinking rapidly.

“It was obscene to ask it of Panchali, of all people.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dushala was married to Jayadrath and had a son named Suratha. After the war, Arjuna rode to Sindhu to make arrangements. Suratha thought Arjuna was coming to kill them and died of fright. When Arjuna got there, he made Suratha's infant son king and Dushala regent for her grandson. Charvi and Yathartha are my headcanoned names for Dushala's daughter-in-law and grandson respectively. It's also my headcanon that some of the Kauravas were decent, even if they all fought for Duryodhana.


	9. Balarama, 10 sentence meme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @iamnotthat, who asked “Hi I hope you are doing well! If you are still doing this Balrama for the the ten sentence meme.”

**(Favorite) Color**

Dwaraka is rainy and gray and sea-swept when first he sees it, and Balarama knows they will build it into something grand.

**Crossover**

Why does he feel as though he is arranging this elaborate escapade as much for Rukmini’s benefit as for Kanha’s, when he scarcely knows the princess of Vidarbha at all, and her happiness should be of trivial concern to him?

**Fear**

Rukmi has always galled Balarama in a way that even Shishupala never did, with his arrogance and his presumption towards his sister; when finally Balarama brings his mace down upon his skull, he savors the look in Rukmi’s eyes.

**Mythological Creature**

There are times when Revati misses the simplicity of her time with a keenness bordering on despair, and Balarama fears that this world – that  _ he _ – can never be enough for her.

**Nature**

The days that Kanha does  _ not _ pull some trick frighten Balarama far more than the ones that he does.

**Prophecy**

Vasudeva is conscientious and brave and soft-spoken, with a dry wit, a man any son would be proud to call father, and but for a prophecy that sundered their lives, Balarama might have been able to summon something more than worshipful admiration for him, the kind of easy intimacy he has with Nanda.

**Religion**

Nisatha and Ulmuka inherit their mother’s height, and by the time each has reached their  _ upanayana,  _ they dwarf their father.

**Role Model**

Whom other than Rohini, who was born in palaces and willingly walked among cowherds to protect sons not her own, can Balarama ever revere more?

**Scar(s)**

Why Subhadra couldn’t have just  _ told _ him she would rather marry Arjuna than Duryodhana and saved them all so much trouble is something Balarama never figures out, and in the end he can do nothing else but chalk it up to Kanha’s bad influence and consider it another gray hair earned.

**Seven Deadly Sins/Seven Cardinal Virtues**

Duryodhana is a brute who deserves no consideration, the self-righteous screech, but Balarama knew Duryodhana before he was a proud Kuru king, when he was just a gangly stripling, cultivated his skills and his prowess until he was the best mace-fighter in all the three worlds, and when he learns that such a master was cut down by trickery, how can he be anything other than aggrieved?


	10. Krishna/Satyabhama, “everything’s just a fucking joke to you, isn’t it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For @medhasree on Tumblr.

They are approaching Narakasura’s capital, atop Garuda, when Krishna directs his mount into a sudden, sharp downward descent. Satyabhama’s stomach drops and she clenches Garuda’s feathers, too breathless to scream, until Krishna pulls up at the last second. He laughs with great mirth; apparently, he has executed this trick many times before, and he thought it would be funny to share it with Satyabhama. She is not used to aerodynamics as he is, and she snaps the words that leave him surprised and abashed. 

Trepidation, more than spite, sharpens her tone. Of course her husband would feel completely at ease. At sixteen, he felled his evil uncle in single combat and has fought in many battles since then. Satyabhama considers herself a capable woman, but her dominion is the treasury, not the battlefield. 

She should be braver than this, but by all the heavens, Narakasura defeated the king of the gods himself and laid his hands on Mother Aditi ( _a mother should be revered above all else_ ). How could she not fear such an enemy? 

Spiring in the distance are the towers of Pragjyotisha, and spiring within her is alarum and a terrible, grief-stricken kind of foreboding. 


	11. Bhima, three changes he would make and one he would not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For idk4444/@the-windigos-are-listening, who asked "Bhima for the Three changes they would make if he/she could travel back in time and one he/she would leave the same (or vice versa) prompt :3"

1\. He would kill Duryodhana as soon as the Nagas had returned him after saving him from his failed drowning. 

2\. He would spend more time with Ghatotkacha, so that he might have been a father to him and not simply a legend to this brave, brave boy.

3\. He would bring his sword down upon Jayadratha’s neck as soon as they had secured Draupadi, for what is the weight of Dushala against golden, guileless Abhimanyu?

and

1\. He would still search for the golden lotus, not because of the chance to meet his godly half-brother Hanuman, nor because of the chance to clear the earth of more enemies, but simply because it brightened Panchali’s face.


	12. Five names Gandhari might have had (other than the one of her kingdom)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Golden_Daughter/@incurablescribbler.

1\. Saubali, for her father. 

2\. Raga, for the musical talents she grows up to lack.

3\. Shivani, for the god she reveres.

4\. Tarika, for the stars that she knows must twinkle over both Hastinapura, her prison, and over Gandhara, her destroyed home.

5\. Netri, for the beautiful eyes that she forever closes.


	13. Five secrets Madri would never share.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Golden_Daughter/@incurablescribbler.

1\. The name of her birth, not the name of her kingdom but her true name, the only gift her mother left to her.

2\. As a girl, she once snuck out to the stables and ended up ruining a fine sari of blue silk. She blamed the misdeed on some poor servant girl, who was punished and dismissed.

3\. A little older still, while acting as her brother’s commander, her arrogance led her to disregard some of his battle plans and ended up costing them three villages (although in the end the territory was restored to them). 

4\. As a young wife newly arrived in Hastinapur, she used to wish she had married Dhritarashtra, who was strong and capable of having sons even if he was blind. (She sorely repents her uncharitable thoughts once she sees Pandu with all his sons.)

5\. She actually loved her twins and Kunti’s boys equally, despite what she said to her sister queen, and would have been able to treat them all the same. It is the thought of having to look into their eyes for the rest of their lives and know that she cost them their father that sends her into the pyre. 


	14. Krishna, semper ad meliora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For anonymous on Tumblr, who asked “Krishna, Mahabharata, _semper ad meliora_ (always towards better things)”.
> 
> Mentions of kidnapping and period-typical sexism & victim-blaming.

Most of Narakasura’s sixteen thousand captives were unmarried when he kidnapped them -- he preferred maidens -- but Omaja of Sankri had been wed for a handful of years, with two children, when he plundered her kingdom. Sankri was a small nation that easily fell to Naraka’s might, and Omaja’s husband had been killed defending his people. Her in-laws had managed to spirit away her children -- fierce Brindha and toddling Yash -- to safety, and they’ve grown up in their paternal grandparents’ care, these last seven years.

Omaja’s husband had been an inoffensive man whose death brought her no joy but no great anguish either. Her children, though, whom she had carried and nursed and loved - it’s for them that she’s grieved and wept and raged. Their absence was the worst thorn to her heart, more than any of Naraka’s torments, during her years in Pragjyotisha.

Even now that she has been rescued, her jailer slain and her honor restored, her late husband’s kin refuse to send word of her children. She received only a curt missive in response to her desperate pleas, informing her that Brindha and Yash were in good hands, certainly better than those of a woman “who should have thrown herself into the sea rather than live with a man not her husband”.

She has no recourse, no advantage by which she can stake a claim to them. She is a sullied woman, and it’s fathers and their family who hold the rights over the children. Omaja must be nothing more than faint memories to Brindha by this point, and Yash has no recollection of her at all. 

“We have more than we ever dreamed of,” her sisters tell her. “You should be content.”

She wants to scream. _What do you know of motherhood?_ _What do you know of having only half your heart?_

But when Dwaraka’s king hears her laments, he offers neither piety nor scorn, only a dark look of understanding. He disappears into his study and emerges covered in ink stains.

A fortnight later, Brindha tumbles out of a palanquin into her mother’s arms, weeping with joy. Neither orphanhood nor her grandparents’ sharp murmurings have dulled her spirit or her loyalty to her mother. Yash trails behind, more hesitant of this woman he cannot recall, but he trusts his sister’s instincts, and cautiously he embraces Omaja.

Time will remedy his reluctance, Omaja knows. She has her freedom, and her children, and all the time in the three worlds -- thanks to her husband, Krishna. 

For the first time in her year of remarriage, Krishna truly feels like her husband and not just Dwaraka’s lord, and for the first time in seven years, Omaja smiles. 


	15. Devaki, Panchakanya meme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous on Tumblr asked “Devaki (Krishna’s mother), Panchakanya meme”.

**Ahalya**

_an important first for them_ || deception || disguise || something they waited for || kill two birds with one stone

In her days of maidenhood, Devaki had imagined her wedding night would be a joyous occasion, an auspicious start to what would be a fruitful marriage. Her husband would soothe her girlish nervousness, and while there would be some pain, he would be tender and gentle and the kind of husband girls prayed to Lord Shiva to attain, and she had looked forward to the night with giddy anticipation. 

A few ominous words from heaven is all it takes to turn them from blushing newlyweds to terrified prisoners, with little in the way of grace or tenderness. Devaki’s wedding night is fumbling and awkward and inundated with their tears, for they know what awaits the sons born from their union.

**Draupadi**

one grudge they held || favorite hairstyle || baptism of fire || _five finger discount_ || one big change that they wrought

Of all her brother-cousins, Kamsa drives the hardest bargains, and only after she agrees to give him half the mangoes she stole from the orchard does he agree not to report Devaki’s theft to Uncle Ugrasena. 

**Sita**

_friends are the family we choose for ourselves_ || green thumb || captive audience || no good deed goes unpunished || true blue

Rohini and Yashoda raised the children of her womb, nurtured and loved and protected them while Devaki waited out her imprisonment, and that makes them more her sisters than any of her father’s daughters. 

**Tara**

one prediction they made || communal cup || _one injury/wound/illness they healed or cured_ || on the tail end || keen acumen

The grief that fills their cell after their first son’s death leaves them both too weary to speak. Vasudeva, in particular, is struck hard: it was Devaki who carried Kirttiman in her for nine months, but Vasudeva who carried him to Kamsa to be murdered. When melancholy’s grip on him is tightest, she says nothing, but instead takes his raw wrists in her hands and chafes them with her _pallu_.

**Mandodari**

frog in boiling water || mother lode || hospitality in a time of war || one time they intervened || _labor of love_

Devaki is near-blinded when she steps into sunlight for the first time in twenty-five years. A gentle breeze blows, and she tilts her head back, letting her locks -- rendered brittle gray by grief and dungeons -- flutter. She blinks her eyes again. This time, Mathura comes into sharp focus before her.


End file.
